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Mum's grief at loss of little angel

by Jennifer Williams
19/11/2008

A MOTHER this week relived the harrowing moment her two-year-old daughter was killed by a neighbour’s reversing car.

A packed inquest heard that Sienna O’Hara’s death was a tragic accident in which the driver could not have seen Sienna.

The tot died last June in the quiet Denton cul-de-sac in Palatine Mews where she lived with her mum, dad and two brothers.

The coroner heard that on June 26, Michelle Newton had been preparing her other two children for school as usual. As she was strapping her son into the car, Sienna, dressed in pyjamas and shoes, wandered off to the kerbstone. Michelle called her back but when Sienna wandered off for a third time, tragedy struck in a split second.

Witness Kirsty Bate said she saw a Vauxhall Astra reversing out of a neighbour’s drive towards Sienna.

She added: "She got pushed into the road.  Michelle screamed and ran towards her."

The court heard that the car’s driver, Leanne Green, also of Palatine Mews, could not have seen the toddler. The size of Sienna and the way the pavement dipped meant she would have been invisible, the inquest heard.

PC Clive Sharples said specialist tests had been done on the car and both the seat and the wing mirrors were in the correct position.

He added: "Sienna would have been considerably lower than what the driver would have seen."

Speaking of her loss, Mrs Newton said: "Christmas will be hard and it was her birthday a couple of weeks back, so that was hard too.  Sienna loved dancing and singing and her bike — she wanted a Nintendo DS for Christmas."

She called the incident a "tragic accident".

Coroner John Pollard ruled that Sienna died from head injuries caused by the accident.

He added: "It’s of very small comfort but I don’t think she would have suffered because her level of consciousness was so low at that stage. I’m quite satisfied that she died as a result of a tragic accident."